In the cold light of day, I saw the game as follows:
a. Smith started great, but at the end of the day didn't outplay Markstrom. I don't put any particular goal on him, but that's not how I assess it.
b. Markstrom was solid enough but never had to really stretch or slide to make a save - in other words, the Flames made it pretty easy on him. The exceptions being the goasls they scored (see how that works boys).
c. Gio looked slower, like I said in the game thread. But he's still faster than most defencemen and I am not saying he's dropped off a cliff or anything.
d. Gaudreau was brilliant in the late third. Which was a big let down for me, because he was obviously able to to do that but didn't muster it in the first and second.
e. The PP was too static (again) which had nothing to do with the drop pass. I don't automatically assume off-wing players would help, but I'd at least like to see switches to off-wing during the pressure. More than anything, they lost puck battles during the PP.
f. I liked Valimaki, Dube, Hanifin and to a lesser extent Czarnik, Neal and Lindholm. Of the others, I liked Tkachuk, Hamonic (what a guy), and to a lesser extent even strength Gio and Brodie. Monahan was Monahan - he was in position but didn't get the pucks. Stone wasn't very good. I thought Bennett and Jankowski were too low energy given the amount of rest they had. A fourth line needs to come out and be all out for the entire shift. Backlund had a bad game IMO and Frolik was merely adequate.
At the end of the day, it's only one game, it was the Canucks home opener and there's lots of time to improve. On the other hand, aside from the next game, the schedule is tough and they could really have used a win against a lesser team. On the third hand, playing tough teams early in the season might have advantages (they won't be in mid-season mode, and hopefully that means late season schedule advantages).
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